Understanding What Impacts Custodian Cleaning Rates and Productivity

How many square feet of space can a custodian clean in an eight

hour shift?

The answer depends upon several factors that must first

be considered

The type of building or spaces being cleaned?What are the expectations of cleanliness?What are the impact of obstacles or interruptions?

What type of building is being cleaned?

The time needed to clean a building will vary greatly depending upon the type of building or area of the building that is being cleaned along with the level of cleanliness expectation and frequency of the cleaning tasks performed.

For comparison purposes, an office suite or a retail store can be cleaned more quickly than a classroom mainly due to the amount of furniture in the classrooms.

Custodian cleaning rates in K-12 schools are not standardized, mostly due to the variability of the spaces to be cleaned, the differentiation in how the spaces are used, along with other non-cleaning expectations of the cleaning staff.

Currently, there are several different models used to describe levels of cleanliness and staffing for custodial services. As you might expect, these methodologies differ greatly. APPA is the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers and a leader in the cleaning industry.

They have developed a five-tiered system segregated into levels to help guide in decision making for cleanliness. The IEA has refined this for K-12 schools.

• Level 1 CleaningLevel 1 cleaning results in a "spotless" building, as might normally be found in a hospital environment or corporate suite. At this level, a custodian with proper supplies and tools can clean approximately 10,000 to 11,000 square feet in an 8-hour period.

• Level 2 CleaningLevel 2 cleaning is the uppermost standard for most school cleaning, and is generally reserved for restrooms, special education areas, kindergarten areas, or food service areas. A custodian can clean approximately 18,000 to 20,000 square feet in an 8-hour shift.

• Level 3 CleaningLevel 3 cleaning is the norm for most school facilities. It is acceptable to most stakeholders and does not pose any health issues. A custodian can clean approximately 28,000 to 30,000 square feet in 8 hours.

• Level 4 CleaningLevel 4 cleaning is not normally acceptable in a school environment. Classrooms would be cleaned every other day, carpets would be vacuumed every third day, and dusting would occur once a month. At this level, a custodian can clean 45,000 to 50,000 square feet in 8 hours.

• Level 5 CleaningLevel 5 cleaning can very rapidly lead to an unhealthy situation. Trash cans might be emptied daily and carpets vacuumed on a weekly basis. One custodian can clean 85,000 to 90,000 square feet in an 8-hour period.

It is important that planners, administrators, and community members agree on what level of cleanliness and productivity is acceptable.

Most can agree that acceptable productivity rates for school buildings range from between 18,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. of gross cleaning capacity in an eight hour period, per full time school custodian.

The figures above are simply estimates. The number of square feet per shift a custodian can actually clean will depend on the uniqueness of the building and any process variables. Variables must be taken into account when determining workload expectations.

We can categorize variables into frequency of task schedule, obstacles and interruptions.

What are obstacles and interruptions?

Essentially, they are anything that interferes with cleaning

activities!

Obstacles• The size of the room and the amount of

furniture in this room does create obstacles making it difficult to perform cleaning activities.

• The number of fixtures in a classroom i.e. sinks and restrooms inside of the classrooms. It takes extra time to keep these fixtures clean and sanitized.

• Lack of tools or equipment to assist in performing cleaning tasks efficiently.

Interruptions• The district does not employ a

maintenance technician or a groundskeeper. Performing preventative and corrective maintenance tasks as well as groundskeeping tasks, creates interruptions to the cleaning schedule. When you are maintaining or repairing equipment, pulling weeds etc., you are not performing cleaning tasks.

• Events, school or community related. Time to set-up, breakdown clean, re-clean and maintain security, is very time consuming and this also causes inefficiencies with the cleaning workflow.

Interruptions• Laundry duties. Custodians have taken

over the laundry service duties as a cost savings initiative. While this saves the district money in contracted service and paper towel expense, it consumes time.

• Recycle program. As a cost savings initiative, our custodians have increased their role in our recycling efforts.

• Traffic control management and courier duties.

• Weather. Snow and ice not only take time away from cleaning but create extra cleaning duties.

Productivity ExampleBrook Park School is calculated at 74,000 gsf .Divide 74,000 gsf x (3) custodians to get 24,666 gsf of cleaning area per custodian. This equates to 3,100 gsf/hr. of uninterrupted cleaning time needed to achieve our cleaning objectives at APPA level 3.

In a best case scenario, Brook Park custodians have only 6.50 hours of cleaning time available each evening.

Which means our custodians would have to clean at a rate of 3,795gsf/hr. instead of 3,100 gsf/hr. to clean the building at APPA level 3.

Wow, 3,795 gsf/hr. Most homes in our area are much smaller than this. With that in mind, can you clean your home in an hour? How clean would it be? Classrooms are much more difficult to clean due to the interruptions and obstacles!

O.K., now we must factor in the cleaning task schedule and frequency of tasks, but more importantly estimate the impact of obstacles and or interruptions that effect our ability to execute the work.

Remember that 6.50 hours of uninterrupted cleaning time at a rate of 3,795 gsf/hr. is necessary in order to achieve the maximum productivity rate of 24,666 gsf/day per custodian calculated in our example for Brook Park School.

Estimating the impact of interruptions is easy to do. Estimating the impact of obstacles is more difficult to discern.

The impact of just 30 minutes of obstacles or interruptions per custodian can equate to over 5,692 sq. ft. of total area not being cleaned effectively or worse, missed completely.

That equates to approximately (8) Brook Park sized classrooms missed or not cleaned according to the schedule each shift.

Productivity ExampleFor comparative purposes, S.E. Gross School is calculated at 95,600 gsf.Divide 95,600 gsf x (3) custodians to get 31,867 gsf of cleaning area per custodian. This equates to a rate of 4,900 gsf/hr. of uninterrupted cleaning time needed to achieve our cleaning objectives here.This rate exceeds the uppermost productivity level for cleaning at APPA level 3 in an eight hour shift. Add to this the impact of obstacles or interruptions and you are cleaning Gross School at APPA level 4

Impact of Obstacles and Interruptions

As you can see, obstacles and interruptions to the cleaning schedule can relate directly to the inability of our custodians to perform cleaning tasks at the highest productivity level or perhaps even to an acceptable task frequency expectation.

What can we do?We are experimenting with the cleaning schedule to determine the frequency and level of custodial services that we can realistically and consistently deliver.We are considering the purchase of equipment that will help us to clean and disinfect more efficiently and increase our productivity level.We are trying to schedule preventative maintenance tasks during spring and winter break so as to minimize the negative impact these duties have on our cleaning schedule.We can hire a F.T. maintenance technician and or an event custodian to allow more cleaning time for our custodians.

Questions and Discussion